How Does Daredevil Fit in the Marvel Movie Universe?

There have been a lot of rumors surrounding Marvel characters going from Fox to Marvel Studios lately, but this week some news actually happened as the movie rights to Daredevil have officially be relinquished by Fox and are now controlled by Marvel Studios. It’s a big deal for Marvel, who also announced that the Avengers’ sequel (currently unnamed) has been given a tentative release date of May 1st, 2015. It’s also a little surprising since Fox seemed to be working toward producing a 70s style retro film directed by Joe Carnahan. Based on the sizzle reel he made, it looked like it could have been pretty good too:

Regardless of how cool Carnahan’s vision might have ended up, we can be pretty sure that Marvel Studios will have their own take on the man without fear. Marvel has managed to make all of their movies blend into each other, and that brings up my question; Where does Daredevil fit in the Marvel movie universe?

The short answer is that he doesn’t. The rumors suggested that Marvel was willing to give Fox an extended period to get things going with Daredevil, as long as they released the rights to some of their other properties, specifically Galactus and Silver Surfer from the Fantastic Four franchise. This would make sense considering that there is a Guardians of the Galaxy movie in the works and that Thanos and the Cosmic Cube will be in play for the sequel. The devourer of worlds and his messenger boy would fit right into all that.

Would this work on the big screen?

Not so much for Daredevil though. Marvel seems to have their eyes set on space and technology, and I’m not sure how a blind lawyer from Hell’s Kitchen fits into all that. What’s more, Daredevil has never been a big team guy. In fact, he turned down being an Avenger twice already. I would think that while Marvel ended up with the bigger name, they might have preferred the other characters instead. Let’s not forget Ben Affleck’s failed DD movie as well. The stench from that one might be part of why Fox let it go in the first place.

So now that they have him, what to they do with him? Daredevil has been more involved in the rest of the Marvel Universe lately, most recently teaming up with Spider-Man and Punisher (not Marvel properties, I know), and did hook up with the Avengers during Fear Itself. Daredevil has also been among the hottest comics Marvel has had to offer lately, with Mark Waid giving us a lighter take on him than we have seen in the past. Since the movies have tried to reflect the current comics and vice versa, putting one of its current top sellers in the mix does makes sense. Iron Man 2, Captain America and The Avengers were all largely based in New York, so Matt Murdock wouldn’t have to go too far to find his new super buddies.

The other option of course is to make a movie in Joe Carnahan’s original vision. Hell maybe he could even direct it. No one said that every Marvel character has to work together. The idea of a more mature 70s style action movie sounds pretty great to me. It would also give them the opportunity to get more characters into the mix without everyone having to be in the Avengers sequel and fight for screen time. This could be a place for Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Songbird and other characters that don’t necessarily fit into the grand scheme of what Marvel has called, “Phase 2.” Only time will tell how they incorporate Daredevil into Marvel Studios’ grand scheme, but I would bet that Joss Whedon is working on it as we speak.